that's true. And I so wish is wasn't. I have totally given up hope of ever being able to purchase a new tv with cable card. I had a Toshiba back in 2007 and I loved it. And now, cable tv rates are going through the roof. I have RCN in my area and they scramble everything. Except of course those they have to pass on like local OTA channels. The monthly rental on an HD box is $12.00 a month. Multiply that by 4 tv sets and it gets very expensive each month just to rent the boxes. Now, if I had tv's with cablecard access. The rental rates on those are only $1.50 a month. What a savings.
Nor do I have any confidence in the FCC in enforcing or getting more consumer based products out there that are also cablecard accessible.

The FCC now mandates that CABLECARD is offered as a self-install option. It should be much easier to get and install. The greatest value is for Tivo and PC users. Not much use for other cases since not many TVs have this feature. I think the only manufacturer offering this was Panasonic in 2010.

Many sets from that time used a common 42" 1080P panel that had severe problems with banding. I had three of them, (the original, and two replacements) until finally Toshiba gave me my money back. The two replacements were refurbs from them. I went with refurb because they were the only Toshiba units that still had the cablecard. But after getting my money back. I still ended up purchasing a new Toshiba. Still have it. Still working just fine. But no CC.
Here's pic of the tv with the lines running down the picture.

I would love to be able to purchase a smaller, like 26" hdtv with cable card for my kitchen area. It's a PITA to have a box on the counter so that I can watch. RCN requires a box for every tv now. And the HD boxes are big.

I would hazard an opinion that more people could use cable card than build in tuners most TV's have, but I smell some sort of conspiracy between TV makers and cable companies. And cable companies didn't even had to make too much effort, all they had to do is create some compatibility issues so people would blame it on TV, if cable card didn't work properly, or something like that. Cable companies must be making tons of money on DVR rentals, I'm paying something like $20/month for 2 yrs already, without any service call or other cost to them for DVR that cost them maybe $500 in bulk, if that much, so they already doubled their original investment. I will be fighting back, soon I will purchase some device with cable card and my computer as a recorder, when I get little more free time, to set it up properly. Just trying to decide what would be the best option, but honestly I'm not very impressed with offerings at the moment. TV with cable card would be best option, but I know it won't happen.

... but I smell some sort of conspiracy between TV makers and cable companies.

I agree that perhaps it is all based on financial gain between TV manufacturers, the STB manufacturers and the Cableco's. The TV manufacturers can cut costs by not including the feature. The STB manufacturers gain for sales of STB's and the Cablecos gain from rentals. Everyone wins except the consumer.

IMHO, the two main reasons are:
1) Lack of two-way support with Cablecard (PPV, VOD, Channel Guides).
2) Cablecos not embracing the technology since they lose income.